Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Top U.S. and Brazilian negotiators said a breakthrough was still possible for a global trade accord despite the collapse of World Trade Organization talks earlier this week.
Many meetings will be required between trade ministers from the 149-nation WTO to regain momentum on negotiations, but a deal could be sealed within five to seven months, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Saturday.
“We believe it is possible, but it won’t fall from the sky,” Amorim told reporters after talking behind closed doors with Schwab for two hours in a hastily arranged meeting.
The talks broke down in Geneva after rich nations and poor nations failed to reach an accord amid deep divisions over farm subsidies in developed nations and increased market access in developing countries.
Amorim and Schwab said the United States and Brazil – key players in the WTO talks – are committed to finding ways to purse a global treaty that would slash subsidies, increase market access and raise living standards in poor countries.
They said they will encourage trade ministers across the planet to determine why the talks in Geneva broke down this week, and what can be done to get them back on track.
“Brazil and the United States are leaders in this effort to help revive the Doha round (of talks), and we see our meeting today as the beginning of a process that we hope our colleagues from other countries will also support,” Schwab said.
Named after the Qatari capital where negotiations began five years ago, the Doha round is designed to boost the global economy by lowering trade barriers across all sectors, with particular emphasis on helping poorer countries develop their economies through export growth.
Schwab added that Washington was not interested in negotiating a watered-down agreement that some have said might now be possible, preferring instead to press for a treaty with sweeping trade liberalization.
She and Amorim met two days after WTO chief Pascal Lamy urged the organization’s members to avoid playing the “blame game” over the collapse of the Doha round.
Lamy was apparently referring to the European Union and the United States, which have spent much of this week blaming each other.
The EU said Washington derailed the talks by not offering deeper cuts in subsidies paid to farmers, while the United States attacked Europe for declining to ease foreign access to its agricultural markets.
Poor nations claim the international trading system is stacked against them because wealthy nations’ farm markets remain highly protected. Rich nations have said they are willing to slash farm support, but only if developing countries open up their markets to international industry and services.
Lamy suspended the negotiations Monday after a meeting of ministers from the United States, the EU, Japan, Australia, India and Brazil made it clear that differences over farm subsidies were unbridgeable.
